In his words: Clinton Portis

John Keim

11/29/2007

Clinton Portis took time today to speak with the media on how practice went given the circumstances. He also settles some rumors and Antrel Rolle's comments.

On how today went:

It went better than yesterday. A lot of guys were having that conversation on the sidelines, if Sean was out here … But as far as the tempo, I think you see more guys smiling today, you see more guys trying to have fun today and yesterday. I think it was hard for anybody to focus or concentrate or do anything. We was just running around and a lot of the conversations were, Man, I miss Sean doing this or I miss Sean doing that.

On dealing with seeing Sean's locker:

I stay out of the locker room. My locker is next to his. A lot of guys will be over to the locker and looking up and seeing the picture of Sean and seeing that locker cased up and seeing that seat right there, it's like an emptiness. It's a shock that you can't look up and see him and won't look up and see him again.

On switching his number to 21:

I think as far as that, 21 was Sean's number and for me to put it on I can't go out and emulate Sean's style and I can't go out and be Sean Taylor. There's no need to drag it on or carry it along or even tease the fans that admire him by putting that jersey on. All I can do is go out and give it everything I've got. That's what Sean did week in and week out. Time after time I always told you all that was the best player I've ever seen. For me to put that jersey on, I can't live up to those expectations and I can't be Sean Taylor so I wouldn't even try.

On if it helped to be back on the field:

It do man. The first couple days being down with the family and going through it and getting the breaking news it was basically trying to hold up and be strong. Just in phone conversations people are like man, you're holding everything in, you're bottling everything in; it's all right to cry. Getting back with the team, seeing the memorial and doing this in that locker room and looking up made it tough. It brought a whole lot of things to perspective. Ladell was talking today about how everyone feels like football isn't that important when you don't have Sean anymore. But at the same time you see how much football is important because you see all the people that respect Sean and see all the people that Sean has respected. It's the biggest news; it's on every channel and everyone is talking about it. You never realize what football do for the people at home and the respect that people have for you from football. We take it for granted and a lot of days we come over here and are like, Man, I don't feel like playing football. But in doing this you've gotta realize we're cheering up a lot of households. There are a lot of people who look forward to seeing us on Sundays and a lot of people who get an appreciation out of life by watching us so we have to go out there and give it everything we've got.

Antrel grew up with Sean. He know the neighborhood; he know the people. He'll hear more conversations than you would hear or I would hear. They still stay in the same area, they still from the same part of town. Antrel goes back to 6 years old so he knew more about Sean than any of us. Maybe he knew something we didn't know. It doesn't matter if people were targeting him or not, but at the same time we need to find who did it.

On if Sean expressed any concerns about the initial burglary:

I don't know anything about the initial burglary. I didn't know until this happened that his house had been burglarized. I didn't even know he was in Miami. No one did. I knew nothing about it.